Seal-lock



(ModeL) 3 SheetsSheet 1.

. F. A. DUNNING.

sEAL LOOK. No. 337,938. Patented Mar. 16 1886.

f I if (ModeL) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

F. A; DUNNING.

SEAL LOCK. No. 337,933. 3 Patented Mar. 16, 1333.

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(MooieL) 3 Sheets--Sheet 3.

F. A. DUNNING.

SEAL LOGK.

No. 337,938. Patented Mar. 16, 1886.

N. Packs Photvliliwgraphor. Wanhinglon, o. c.

UNTTE STATES FRANK A. DUNNING, OF

BLUE ISLAND, ILLINOIS.

SEAL-LOG K.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 337,938, dated March16, 1886.

Application filed December 23, 1884. Serial No. 151,054; (ModcL) To allwhom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK A. DUNNING, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Blue Island, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inSealLocks, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain improvements in seal-locks forfreight-cars, the construction and operation of which are fully setforth and explained in the following specification and claims; and inorder to enable others skilled in the art to make and use saidinvention, reference is had to the following described drawings, makinga part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a side view of acar-door and a portion of a car, showing the lock attached to the car tohold the door closed. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the opposite side ofthe car, showing the mannerin which that door is held closed. Fig. 3 isa perspective view of the lock having its face-plate removed. Fig. 4 isa perspective view of the face-plate of the lock. Fig. 5 is aperspective view of a combined hook and key to be used in unlocking thelock. Fig. 6 is a horizontal longitudinal section of the lock, lookingdown from line 2, Fig. 1, to show the interior mechanism. Fig. 7 is aperspective view of a tumbler having a spiral flange extending nearlyaround it, it being a portion of the interior of the lock. Fig. 8 is across-section of the lock on line 3, Figs. 1, 3, 6, and also showing asection of a car to show how the latch-bolt of the lock engages with thecar when holding the car-door locked. Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional viewof the lock on line l of Figs. 1 and 3, showing a side View of thespirally-flanged tumbler. Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the mechanismby means of which the car-door on the opposite side of the car from thelock is held closed when the lock is in the position shown in Fig. 1;and Fig. 11 is a similar view to that of Fig. 9, showing the form of thetumbler varied somewhat by the use of a rear spring and an extending luginstead of the spiral flange. Fig. 12 is a face view of the seal-ticketas it 1 appears attached to its stub in a book, and Fig. 13 is a view ofthe rear side of the sealticket from that shown at 3 in Fig. 12.

In the drawings, J represents the body or frame of the lock,havingacover or face-plate, J, and a rear covering-plate, J", all iirmlyheld together by suitable screws passed from the back through the rearcovering-plate, J and the body or frame J and secured into theface-plate J.

The lock is intended to be pivoted to the side and near the bottom of acar by means of a bolt, B, having only its head exposed in such manneras to rest against and behind the car-door D when locked, and to beturned back and down far enough to permit the cardoor to slide over itin opening when it is unlocked, and to accomplish this the rear orpivoted end of the body or frame and its plates terminate indownwardly-extending lugs or ears, and are provided with a hole, 13 forthe reception of bolt B, Figs. 1, 3, 4.

\Vithin a chamber of frame J is plaged a lever, a, arranged to passthrough an'iepening in a latch-bolt, B, and be fulcrunied at its extremeend, and in the front end of the lock between a solid portion of frame Jand the rear covering-plate, J", (see Figs. 3, 6, and 8,) while theopposite or movable end of said lever a terminates in an enlarged sideportion, which is arranged to extend from the chamber of frame J andthrough an opening, a, in face-plate J, and present a surface on thesameplane as thatof the faceplate. (See Figs. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9.)

The opening through latclrbolt B, through which lever a passes, issufficiently long to permit the said bolt to be pressed back within thelook when latching to lock. the car-door without pressing against ormoving lever a, as the said bolt is held engaged with lever a from theopposite direction by means of conical coi 1- spring t,placed in achamber immediately back of said bolt B, and held therein by face-plateJ. Immediately over the enlarged and movable portion of lever a, andplaced on a stud, o, in the center of a circular chamber in frame J, isa spirally-flanged tumbler, It, having a square key-socket, K. (See Fig.7.)

In the lever a, immediately under the tum bler R, is a channel,R,in sizeand form suitable for the engagement of the spiral flange of the saidtumbler. In order to move that end of the lever a to withdraw thelatch'bolt B, so it may become disengaged and withdrawn from its hold inthe notch on the side of the car, the said tumbler is rotated by meansof a key, such as is shown in Fig. 5. The square end of the key ispassed through a key-hole, K, of faceplate J, so that stud o of the lockwill enter hole 22 of said key, and so the square end or shank of thekey will enter the square socket K of the tumbler. The tumbler is formedwith its flange cut away on the side next the lever a when said lever isback in its normal position within the lock, for the purpose ofpermitting said lever to be moved without rotating the tumbler byplacing the hooked end N of the key Kinto the notch E of lever a andpulling outward, which will Withdraw the latch-bolt B in the same manneras when the tumbler R is rotated. When the tumbler R has been rotated acomplete revolution, it has moved the lever a out to its fullest extent,and has also again brought the plane or unflanged side of the tumblernext to the lever, which will release the lever and permit it to bereturned by the action of spring t,- or when the lever is pulled out bymeans of the hooked end of said key the action of said spring will bethe same to return it.

To the front offace-placeJ is pivotally attached a cap, P, by means of astud or rivet, P, and may be held up in its proper position, as showninFig. 1, by means ofspring S bearing against its side. A pair of hookedlugs. H H, of the cap are held up against and under the hooks of a pairof hooked lugs, H, of fatig plate J, which, together with the pivot P;thoroughly prevents the cap P from being pried off from the face-plateJ. (See Figs. 1, 4.) Immediately back of cap P and in faceplate J is aslight depression, F, for the reception of a seal-ticket made frompaper, such as shown at 3, Fig. 12, which is placed therein by removingthe cap P from over said depression when the lock is open or thrown backfrom off the plate 0.

When the lock is looked, the cap P rests on the plate 0, and cannot thenbe removed from over the depression F to permit the ticket either to beinserted or removed.

A glass front, G, is placed in cap P, so the seal-ticket may beinspected when the cap P is closed. An opening through face-plate J,immediately back of the center of the sealticket, communicates with thechamber in frame J, Where lever a is located, and a punch or prod, P",integral with said lever, immediately back of the opening behind saidsealticket, will, when said lever is moved toward said ticket, passthrough the opening in faceplate J and perforate said seal-ticket soplaced in front of it, and thus indicate to an observer looking throughglass G that the lock has been opened or tampered with.

When it is desired to attach the lock to a car, a shaft, S, having theattachments as shown in Fig. 10, is placed through the bottom of the carunder the floor, so the upper surface of platec of shaft S will be onthe same plane as that desired for the bottom of the lock,

so when the lock is against the door, as shown I in Fig. 1, it will restupon the plate 0, and a flange, c, on the outer end of said shaft Sextends up to covera portion of the lock, to pre- To the opposite end ofshaft S from the lock,

and to the opposite side of the car, is firmly secured a stop or check,S", arranged to stand against the lower corner of the door D or againstthe outer end of the bar D secured to I the bottom of said door, to holdthe door closed,

as shown in Fig. 2, when the look is restingon plate 0 of shaft S in theposition shown in Fig. 1; but when the lock is unlatched and turned backoff the plate 0 and out of the way of door D, the shaft S may then berotated to turn the stop or check S ,or pushed to. one side out of theway, so door D may be opened. The handle 0 on said shaft furnishes meansto so operate said shaft. (See Figs. 1, 10.) It can thus be readily seenthat when the door 'of a car is locked both doors must of necessity belocked, and that neither door can be opened without first pulling outlever a by means of rotating said tumbler or by means of the hooked endof said key, as stated, to withdraw the latch-bolt from the side of thecar, and that by so doing the seal-ticket will be perforated, and thusindicate thatthe lock had been tampered with and the car-doors opened.These seal-tickets are printed to bear the number of stations, number ofcar, destination, &c., and be retained and filed away at the oflice atthe terminus of the route for reference or any purpose for which theymay be I lug o from hollow 22 The tumbler is then rotated one-half wayaround, which will bring lug or stud B into channel R of lever a, and byreleasing the pressure on the key-spring t will return the tumbler tothe front of thelock, moving lever a with it, when lug 1; will enterback, which depresses spring t and withdraws another and lower slot,*0", which will hold the l scribed, and fills it up on the back with thelever a fast in that position; but in this case the lever a may be movedby the hooked end of the key without rotating the tumblers. When thelock is turned back and off from plate 0 of shaft S, the said shaft maybe moved endwise to move the stop or check S to one side of door D onthe opposite side of the car to move the stop or check S to one side ofsaid door to permit said door to be opened. In so doing the side of thecar back of plate 0 must be cut away for the entrance of said plate. Ifdesired, the cap P,which covers the seal-ticket, may be hinged to openas a door, and arranged to be held locked or closed by a spring-catch orcatch-bolt on the interior, which may be constructed in various ways notnecessary to be shown.

This lock has thus far been described as applied to a car; but it may beapplied to any door to hold it locked closed so it may not be openedwithout punching or perforating the seal-ticket. V

Fig. 12 shows a face view of the seal ticket as it appears attached toits stub in a book, and Fig. 13 shows the rear side of the seal-ticket.It is intended, when the seal-ticket is placed in the lock, the agentwill fill it up with the date and the number of the car, both on theticket and the stub which he retains. Vhen the car arrives at itsdestination, the agent removes the seal-ticket from the lock, as dedateof receipt, number of car, and his name, and then files it away forreference.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is as follows, to wit:

1. The seal-lock for cars shown and described, consisting of a pivotedframe having side covering-plates, a spring latch-bolt having anelongated opening through its body, an interior lever having a ticketperforating punch or prod and arranged to extend through the opening inthe latch-bolt, a receptacle for a seal-ticket covered by a transparentfront cap, and the means described for operating said parts,substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In the seal-lock shown and described, the combination of the frame orcase J, the lever to, having the prod I, the latch-bolt B, the spring t,and the tumbler R, as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In the seal-lock shown and described, the combination, with the frameor case J, of the lever at, having the prod P spring latch-bolt B, andthe studded rotating tumbler R, all adapted to operate substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

FRANK A. DUNNING.

\Vitnesses:

THos. H. HU'JJOHINS, Var. J. HUTCHINS.

